Jodie Marsh: 'Celebs slagging people off for attention is wrong'

Jodie Marsh has opened up to Digital Spy about the "horrendous" bullying she has received from fellow celebrities, the press and the public throughout her career.

The model-turned-bodybuilder, who is fronting new anti-bullying TV series Jodie Marsh: Bullied, said that famous faces who make abusive comments just to "cause a stir" are setting "bad examples" to fans.

"So many celebrities set bad examples. They need editing before they speak," Marsh said. "Someone needs to stop them.

"I'm not sure if it's because they're not very bright, or they know it's going to cause a stir if they say that. There are loads who shouldn't get away with saying what they say.

"I do think they just do it for attention. It's the only way some of them can. By slagging someone off and being abusive, they know that everyone will then talk about them."

Talking about her own battles - after which she felt suicidal - she said: "My worst experience was when I was in the Celebrity Big Brother house [in 2006]. It was really rough. I felt like I was being bullied by three old men - Michael Barrymore, Pete Burns and George Galloway. They were old enough to be my dad. That was horrendous. That shouldn't have been allowed to happen.

"CBB has changed since then, if that happened now they'd stop it, but at the time they just let it happen to me because I suppose it was good TV."

She continued: "I feel like at times I've been bullied by the press - where they've said such nasty stuff about me, they've attacked me physically and attacked what I look like.

"It's one thing to say, 'I don't like Jodie Marsh for whatever reason' but don't attack me for my physical appearance and call me ugly, fat or whatever. That goes for every celebrity."

However, Marsh said that she does sometimes "feel sorry" for online trolls and the "miserable" lives they lead.

"Something is missing in their lives and having done a lot of bullying work now, people who sit and hate online are miserable and don't have good lives," she said.

"Sometimes I name and shame them but I pick and choose. It always makes them look stupid - they'll have half a million of my followers going 'Ah, you twat,' but I don't want to make their lives worse than they already are.

"On the one hand I want to highlight it, but I don't want to destroy the troll's life. Some people are not mentally stable."

On her bullying campaign work, she said: "A shocking fact is that the school shootings the US have, 70% of those are due to bullying. Most people think these kids who walk into a school and start shooting are evil or born lunatics - but they're actually at the end of their tether and literally snap and want to inflict pain on people who have hurt them. It's like revenge. That was really upsetting.

"I do a lot of anti-bullying work in schools off camera. We go into schools and help the teachers in how to deal with it. The anti-bullying policies are rubbish and they don't know what to do with it. We have to educate the teachers."